Chapter 34: 34. Chapter

While Vokara and Nizzal were arguing, Skywalker and his band of clones were currently checking over the trandoshan's ship, that the two younglings managed to steal. The clones were already in the middle of searching the ship, when Anakin finally got there after he led Kalifa to the council and managed to slip away, successfully escaping the procedure of hearing out the whole report. He walked to the ship at a comfortable speed. To his surprise, the very moment he reached the ship, two clones rushed towards him. One of them was Rex, his captain. He seemed somewhat haunted at the moment, and that was exactly what surprised him.

-Rex, what happened? You look troubled.

-General, we have found something on the ship... I think you should look at it... We tried to check the security cameras, but they seem to be out of order for a long time, so we couldn't exactly know what happened but...

-Come on soldier, if I didn't know you, I would think that you are scared...

Rex sent a genuinely surprised, and also annoyed glance to Anakin, then he immediately looked to the floor, with discomfort. Seeing this, Anakin's jovial mood almost immediately dispersed, as he realized that he had accidentally hit the nail on the head. It was clearly a serious matter, if it managed to make his old friend act this unusual.

-Sorry about that, tell me what you found Rex?

-I would rather show you instead.

-Lead the way then.

-Yes, sir. This way.

They immediately began to walk up the ramp of the ship. It was not that big of a ship; maybe it could have been classified as a medium-sized general purpose civilian cargo ship, but even that would be a stretch.

-Wait, Rex, shouldn't we go towards the bridge? I thought that you wanted to show me something, isn't that about the data where the ship had stopped before?

-No, sir, my man is already checking the map. They will soon send it over to the jedi council for further analyses. We are perfectly capable of handling that, what I am about to show is in the hangar.

-Okay... but at least, could you give me a hint why this sudden mysterious air around you guys...

After a few seconds of thoughtful silence Rex began to speak at last.

-We... found bodies back in the hangar...

-Bodies?

-Dead bodies... mummified ones sir...

-Mummies? Seriously, are you scared of mummies Rex? I would never have guessed...

-I am not scared of mummies! Sigh... Anyway, the fact is, that these ones were only created a few hours ago, at least from the state of their clothes. Even their armor's life support was up and running, perfectly fine until two and a half hours ago. When all of their life signals simultaneously vanished...

-Well, did you try to move them towards a medical bay? Maybe with the proper equipment we can find out more about them.

-That's impossible sir, because the bodies are so fragile that when we tried to move one, it immediately fell apart into fine black dust. Also, the dust seems to be poisonous. The boys were lucky, since their helmet protected them, from most of it, but we still had to send them to the medical wing.

-Now, I will admit that sounds quite eerie.

-You didn't know half of it yet...

The last door leading directly to the hangar finally opened.

-Wow, you forgot to mention that there was a battle here, and all of those were trandoshans?

-Yes, some were killed by blaster weapons, but most of them were not that fortunate. We are unable to figure out, what exactly killed them; I have never seen anything like this before. Do you have any idea what could cause such injuries? Those seven lying over there were clearly suffocated, yet we can't find the weapon that would cause the suffocation. These charred ones are beyond disturbing, and we have no idea how this happened.

-I am not sure... either, but I will figure it out.

I walked closer to one of the horridly deformed bodies; from the moment I stepped into this room it became clear to me, that the darkside influence was strong here. There was unnatural cold air engulfing this particular room. The aura of fear and death even spooked a veteran like Rex.

-General, don't go any closer to that body, If it crumbles to dust, you won't even have an equipped helmet to protect yourself. I would rather not send you, too, to the medical wing.

-It's alright Rex; I won't go any further.

I stopped about one and a half meters from the body, and looked at it. It was clearly not an enviable way to die, but from what I heard, from Kalifa, they clearly had it coming. I closed my eyes, and reached out with the force, trying to search for an answer. It was not really my cup of tea, to use the force for general investigation. Yet, I had to try it none the less.

I focused my mind on the chaotic force in the room, while also silenced any other thoughts. After a while, I began to hear weak voices; those voices soon turned into screams, and battle shouts. I saw two groups of people; one of them were pirates? Nizzal is also with them, interesting. They began to fight with the Trandoshans, but they were clearly about to be overwhelmed. Something happened, a change in the air; many of the lizards began to choke out of nowhere were they poisoned? Then, the sound of simultaneously snapping bones echoed through the air. Bodies fell to the ground, unmoving... then came the lightning. First, it was blue; it burned. Then the red lightning hit, and everything turned red, as the thoughts turned into a muddled mess of screams; darkness and finally silence followed as the vision ended. I saw a pair of golden eyes watching from the silence. I knew those eyes; they belonged to that girl... Was she really watching me, or was this just my imagination?

The trance ended that moment; I stumbled a bit as a powerful pain ran over the surface of my skull... or brain... Sensing this battle, that was so potent in the use of the darkside, was clearly uncomfortable for those who were not used to its exposure...

I grimaced as another wave of pain ran through my body. I stumbled one more time, this time forward; I would catch myself easily, only that for some reason my line of view stuck to the screaming face of the dead lizard before me... The darkness in its hollow eyes seemed to engulf me for a moment...

-me to me...

Did, I just hear something? Was this my imagination?

-JOIN ME!

Appeared a sudden screaming voice in my mind, as I saw the dead lizards mouth move as it spoke, while its hollow eyes suddenly filled up with a bloodthirsty hunger.

-General, are you alright?

-What?! Where is the?

I looked behind me, seeing as Rex was looking at me worriedly. I looked forward again; the dead lizard was there, unmoving, dead and frozen as I had seen it for the first time.

-You should take more care of yourself; General. You were just about to fall face first on top of that dead body. It would crumble to dust, and you would die from the poisonous substance in a minute. I just got the laboratory analysis of the poison. The bodies have an unknown potent paralyzing poison in them, and we don't have a serum against it.

My eyes widened as the realization of what could have happened hit me. Suddenly, I felt a slowly growing anger towards a certain gray twi'lek... So, she decided to try and kill me? Let's see about that, but first.

-Troopers, leave this cursed ship, just bring the navigation computers data drive with you, then we will destroy the rest of the ship as fast as possible. This place is contaminated by the darkside. It is too dangerous to stay here any longer. I have something important to report to the council... I also, have a few questions, of my own... for a certain someone... I hope, her answers will prove to be satisfactory, for her sake.

-Yes sir, right away sir.

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After the high emotional state left Nizzal, her head became very dizzy and she was forced to lay down on the couch again. Seeing her terrible state, even Vokara, decided to forget the punishment. She also felt her own actions to be very childish... the fact that Obi-Wan saw and heard part of it didn't help... Shame was burning her leks, stupid girl. She had to say, the only damn word that would make me loose my cool... Half of the healing community already treats me like a damn witch or hag in her words... which is practically the same.

-Ugh....

-You shouldn't have to start and jump around like that, now you look worse than the time they brought you here. Can't you do something with your yellow eyes? It's getting on my nerves... I will give you a dose of painkillers, so your mind will be a bit fuzzy.

-Wait, I don't need painkillers... ouch...

-Too late, and it is not the time to act tough. You are in a safe place here.

-Damn... I don't know about that, but my eyes, will turn back to normal in a day, or two...

-Is that so? Why is that, why not earlier?

-... Because, I absorbed too much darkside energies, by unleashing a mass life steal spell... My force presence is therefore, unbalanced, until it balances itself out naturally...

-... Mass life steal?

-Yeah, I used it to kill a bunch of lizards who were actively kidnapping children to hunt them down for sport... they wanted to hunt me down too, but they lacked the ability to do so.

-I am keen to see, what the council have to say about this...

The door opened again as Obi-Wan and Ahsoka walked into the room. Rika was also tagging along, this time looking at the serene peace and silent communication that was going on between the two females. As if the chaos a few minutes ago was, but a mere illusion.

-Did you?

-Now, now, Ahsoka, don't look at me like that, I only gave her a sedative, and some painkillers to calm her down.

-I thought that you would only give me painkillers...

-Did I? Oh well, maybe I forgot to mention it...

-You... are the worst... ~ Nizzal's body slowly turned numb as she lost consciousness; her breathing slowly turned more and more relaxed as she slept.

Ahsoka sat down next to her on the couch as she watched her friend sleep, clearly relieved to see her again. Rika was also standing nearby, seemingly not knowing what to do, as her long-lost friend had just fallen asleep in front of her from the drugs that Vokara had given her.

-What is wrong with her skin? Can you tell me, Master Vokara? ~ Asked Ahsoka suddenly.

-Extreme exposure to the dark side, can change your body physically. It is rare to see such level of degradation. She believes that it will disappear in a few days, but I am not so sure about it, as you obviously saw her eyes are yellow too.

-What is it Obi-Wan? You seem awfully quiet.

-Sorry about that. I am simply shocked by how powerful the darkside feels around such a small child. It feels even more powerful, than the one around Ventress... Maybe, we are making a mistake; she is unpredictable and also too powerful in the darkside to walk around freely, just like that. We didn't know enough about her sect; we didn't see anyone else from her sect, to be more precise. The only reason why she is allowed to move around, is the fact that a true sith would never bother to learn pure lightside techniques as force heal... She showed great skills in the lightside and also in the darkside. I don't know what we should do anymore... Also, Anakin told me something that is very disturbing... I am afraid that the council is about to imprison her, at least until we have a wider perspective on this matter. Thank you Vokara, your cooperation means a lot.

-Well, you asked me through a commlink message, to make her sleep in one way or another... She was confused, and wouldn't be able to run away anyway... Better this way, for everyone. I also confirmed your suspicion, she was the one who killed them through a mass life steal technique...

-Nizzal is not someone who would hurt anyone without a proper reason... You don't know her as much as I do. She never even wanted to be in this war, not even this order. The council was the one who first threw her into this whole scenario, and they still hesitate to trust her! If you are so against her being here, just let her leave and do what ever she wants, or stop doubting her without any reason, what is wrong with you?!

Ahsoka shouted suddenly, Rika was also nodding to her words from the side, clearly showing her support.

-...

-...

-Ahsoka, you have to understand, we are in the middle of a war, and she is an unknown risk factor. We can't even prove the existence of this so-called Grey Order, and even if it is true, the fact that they are using the dark side already gives us reason to capture and stop them. Nothing good had ever come from the dark side. What if we destroy the Sith, only for them to take their places later... We can't trust anyone who dabbles in the dark side of the force. In time you will understand what I am saying.

-Then, why did you pretend to trust her, in the first place, you acted as if she was your padawan?
Shouted Rika with clear confusion and betrayal mirrored in her eyes.

-Rika, this whole thing, the mission, and everything else was a part of the council's test. Of course there were unexpected happenings, but the force always acts in mysterious ways. We have found evidence, that the girl, was truly powerful in the force, and we have realized that she was not afraid to use that power for killing, or butchering others with it.

Ahsoka shouted at that with clear anger in her voice.

-Aren't that the exact thing each of us has been doing since this war began?!

-No, a Jedi only kills in self-defence; we never kill when there is an alternative way.

Said Obi-Wan.

-Well, maybe there wasn't an alternative way for her to survive? You didn't even bothered to ask her. You have already decided to condemn her!

Answered Ahsoka.

-No, it was not me, but the councils decision to do so.

-Which you are a member of. By the way, what was your statement in this argument? Where you against condemning her for defending herself?

Obi-Wan was silent after he heard that question, for a few seconds; then he began to speak again.

-Ahsoka, you have to see reason, we can't take risks. The whole galaxy's fate is being questioned right now. She will have a fair trial, and will be judged accordingly, by the Jedi High Council.

-But!

-There is nothing else I have to say in this matter. Master Vokara. I ask you to treat her injuries, then she will be immediately taken to one of the solitary prison rooms. I will personally watch over the transport with the help of four temple guards. You girls should go back to your room and meditate over your actions. Your personal feelings are clearly clouding your judgments.

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